Pinching device for surgical purposes

Abstract

The invention relates to a pinching device for surgical purposes comprising two parallel jaw elements having each a supporting part, one of which is provided with a pin at right angles thereto and the other having a sleeve mounted at right angles thereto and fitting around said pin. The pinching device according to the invention is characterized in that one supporting part is provided with a guide pin and the other has a bore receiving said pin located in the same plane as the first-mentioned pin and the sleeve.

What I claim is: 
     
       1. A surgical clamp comprising, in combination: a pair of elongate supporting parts disposed in spaced opposition and a pair of jaw elements disposed in parallel opposition, each jaw element merging with one end of a corresponding supporting part; and   means for freely guiding said jaw elements for manual movement toward and away from each other and for frictionally holding the jaw members clamped upon an anatomical member such as a blood vessel with and in response to a pressure which has been manually established while allowing subsequent manual release of such frictional holding without first closing the jaw elements further, said means comprising a circular pin anchored to and upstanding from one of said supporting parts and passing through the other supporting part, an elongated, circular sleeve carried by said other supporting part and through which said pin passes with a minor amount of clearance, said sleeve having mutually inwardly facing inner surfaces, one adjacent each of its opposite ends, which frictionally engage and hold onto said pin due to slight relative tilting between said sleeve and pin caused by the pressure exerted by said jaw elements on the anatomical member, and a second upstanding pin anchored on one of said supporting parts and passing through an opening in the other part for preventing relative rotation of the parts about the axis of the pin first mentioned while permitting said slight relative tilting, said supporting parts having portions on that side of said first pin remote from said jaw elements which are spaced apart from each other sufficient in that region adjacent said sleeve and even when the jaw elements are engaged together to permit insertion of a finger therebetween to allow said sleeve to be forcibly slid along said first pin despite said frictional engagement and thereby allow the frictional holding between said first pin and said sleeve to be released without first closing the jaw elements further.   
     
     
       2. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 1 wherein said circular pin is anchored to its supporting part closely adjacent that end thereof which merges with its corresponding jaw element. 
     
     
       3. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 1 or 2 wherein both of said pins are anchored to the same supporting part. 
     
     
       4. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 3 wherein said portions of the supporting parts are the free ends thereof remote from said jaw elements and such portions present mutually facing concavities which readily accommodate a surgeon's gloved finger. 
     
     
       5. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 1 or 2 wherein said second pin is provided with an enlarged portion adjacent its free end which is larger than said opening. 
     
     
       6. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 5 wherein said second pin is provided with a circumferential groove adjacent said free end thereof and said enlarged portion is in the form of a circlip in said groove which may be forced through said opening. 
     
     
       7. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 6 wherein said portions of the supporting parts are the free ends thereof remote from said jaw elements and such portions present mutually facing concavities which readily accommodate a surgeon's gloved finger. 
     
     
       8. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 1 or 2 wherein said portions of the supporting parts are the free ends thereof remote from said jaw elements and such portions present mutually facing concavities which readily accommodate a surgeon's gloved finger. 
     
     
       9. A surgical clamp as defined in claim 1 or 2 wherein the opposite ends of said sleeve are cut away to expose said mutually inwardly facing inner surfaces thereof.